Governing Medication Information

Abstract

Health care applications are technically complex and the software and hardware markets for medical technologies are less mature than for many other fields. Although there should be an interplay between design and the usage of systems, this is often not the case in the health care sector. Currently, information is often bound to a location or institution due to fragmented information systems. Using the notion of asset specificity as a theoretical background, the authors conducted interviews in the Finnish primary health care system. The interviews were analyzed and examples of real life situations are provided to guide designers of information systems for the health care sector.